ETEC 500 – Research Methodology in Education
ETEC 500 investigates how educational research is conducted across the major traditions (quantitative, qualitative, mixed method, and action research). It is particularly focused on topics of relevance to educators and practitioners engaged in using, managing or developing educational technologies.
I took this course in the second semester of the program, I highly recommend taking it in your first semester. While the content is intimidating it provides a great deal of insight into research and this will help with all your subsequent courses.
ETEC 510 – Design of Technology Supported Learning Environments
ETEC 510 examines research and related exemplary participatory, networked media tools, as these inform the design of technology-mediated environments. It explores constructivist and cultural theories of mind, education and digital authoring and communication and their significance for the design of dynamic pedagogical environments that support 21st century modes of making, sharing, literacies and learning.
This was perhaps my favorite course in the MET program, be sure to check out Math Lab it is found under the heading End of Semester in the Course Calendar! You will find instructions for logging into to Math Lab on the “Math Lab in Moodle?” page. This is my first crack at creating and customizing my own Moodle site, my group was fortunate that we were able piggyback off of a colleagues Reclaim hosting account. This course used collaboration effectively. This was my first course in the MET program and I recommend you take it early on in terms of getting your feet wet when it comes to creating digital content.
ETEC 512 – Application of Learning Theories to Instruction
ETEC 512 provides an overview of traditional theories of learning (e.g., Behaviorism, Cognitivism, Neural theories of learning, as well as Cognitive and Social Constructivism), and focuses on their relevance for online learning contexts. In addition, this course provides an introduction to emergent and evolving perspectives and approaches to online learning.
This course examined each theory in detail and connected it to how we integrate technology to enhance learning. This course also provided an introduction to emergent and evolving perspectives and approaches to online learning. It was valuable as the different theories taught were the theoretical underpinnings of many of the courses that followed. It also helped me to gain a better understanding of how students learn and how this learning can be enhanced by educational technologies.
Make sure you take a look at my groups the resource my group created for our Virtual Conference on Learning. The First Peoples Principles of Learning resource is designed with a sequential flow in mind but please explore as you see fit. The “Origins and Importance” page is an ideal starting place after the homepage, as it provides you with the context needed to best engage with the resource. The “Stories through Place” page provides an interactive application that incorporates the FPPL, and the “Theory Into Action” pages provide a series of practical activities and lesson ideas teachers can use in the classroom. You will find it under the heading End of Semester in the Course Calendar!
ETEC 565B – METatheory: New Materialism Meets the History of Educational Media
ETEC 565B is a history of tools. But more than a history of tools as material “things”, this course will be concerned with understanding the relations of tools to ideas, to people, and places and times technologies people used in trying to ‘educate’, the forms of pedagogical communications those tools made possible (and suppressed), and how “knowledge” was – and is – conveyed, understood, and mobilized in peoples’ lives.
This was an extremely challenging course however, that lead to many opportunities to collaborate, share ideas, and work with colleagues. I highly recommend you collaborate with your peers, you will have a better understanding of all the materials then if you decide to go it alone! The class provides a great deal of open endedness, so that you can create your own assignment completion schedule. It is a great deal of work, but in the end you will likely create something you are very proud of.
I have included a few artifacts from this course that I am really proud of. Under the heading Midterm in the Course Calendar you will find a video that explains how the educational technology described in two separate articles might support different communicative relations among teachers and students. You will also find a link to my groups Twittering Theory Task website. For this task we needed to find the public Twitter feed of someone whose ideas we thought were important for educational theorizing today , who is actively using social media to air their views. Our task was to answer the following questions:What are they talking about? Who are they talking about? How and why does that matter to education?
Under the heading End of Semester in the Course Calendar you will find my groups Final Project: “Edtechdev”, a Digital Design and Development Project. We created the Seven Elements of Art – A Digital Design and Development Project website. This website provides a page for each of the 7 elements of art along with a form students can fill out to upload a picture of their own artwork, and then see that artwork displayed alongside the artist on their “maps” page.
ETEC 524 – Learning Technologies: Selection, Design and Application
ETEC 524 provides several theoretical frameworks to assist you in evaluating, selecting and using various learning technologies. In it, you will gain hands-on experience using a range of learning technologies and platforms, for: content presentation, creation and sharing; collaboration, interaction and communication; as well as formative and summative assessment.
While disorganized, this course was incredibly practical. It provided a host of frameworks that are helpful in assessing the learning needs of an organization or in evaluating which educational technologies would be a good fit. This course also provided the opportunity to work with a partner who taught me how LMSs were used in a high school setting we worked together to create an online unit of learning using Moodle and H5P. I have included two artifacts that were embedded into the unit of learning my partner and I created on Career Life Education – Grade 10. The first was created using H5Ps branching scenario and the second was created using H5Ps interactive video. In the interactive video we added pop up questions that allow the students to hone in on key ideas. We embedded videos and questions into the branching scenario that covered interview basics like professional attire, handshakes and common interview questions. You will find them under the heading Semester Start in the Course Calendar.
ETEC 565S – Digital Games, Learning, and Pedagogy (summer institute)
ETEC 565S addresses a large gap borne out by recent research on digital games and learning: teachers, who by and large have limited to no experience of digital games, also struggle to recognize, and, therefore have little idea how to assess, what is being learned through playing them.
This was a face-to-face summer intensive course that introduced the elements of play and the dynamics of digital games. It was an amazing experience, loads of work but well worth it! We had great discussions of how games and learning intersect within and beyond the classroom. This summer institute turned a non-gamer into an enthusiast. Under the heading Midterm in the Course Calendar you will find my videogame review. For this review we were tasked with referencing the principles of games outlined in Ian Bogost’s text. We needed to identify which one or two principles of ‘doing things with video games’ you believe the game enacts/demonstrates. This was one of my first videos created for the MET program, I think it turned out pretty good!
ETEC 565D – Digital Games and Learning
ETEC 565D examines play as it is currently developed and popularly imagined in digital games in order to more closely examine what is “learned” and at play in those immersive environments. Although computer gaming represents, for some people, something unfamiliar, potentially subversive and antithetical to education’s intellectual and social goals, play has always been a powerful vehicle for learning. There is little doubt that young people today, who represent computer gaming’s largest and fastest-growing audience, are learning a great deal in and through digital play, but what is it they are learning, and how? The purpose of this course is to give serious attention to and careful analysis of the contemporary digital forms of gameplay.
This course is a deeper dive into the concepts covered in the summer intensive. I stepped outside my comfort and entered the online gaming world. I took a closer look at gaming culture through assignments involving video game creating, playing and observing, which led me to an overarching idea that there is great learning potential in digital games.
ETEC 565G – Culture and communication in virtual learning environments
ETEC 565G introduces you to theoretical frameworks and research that consider the impact of culture on communications and learning in virtual learning environments. The course investigates culture in broader terms and asks how culture affects the core values that determine our perspectives on teaching and learning. You will reflect on your own culture to gain deeper insights into your assumptions and beliefs. You will explore many layers of diversity in your own personal and professional environments. Each module focuses on appreciating and actively seeking to understand diverse cultural perspectives in order to implement instructional practices that transcend cultural boundaries. We will especially seek to engage critically and creatively with questions that address digital colonialism, cultural intelligence and social change.
I chose to take this course because it is completely outside of my comfort zone. There are many options for reflection in this course, you may chose to participate in the online discussions or reflect quietly on your own in the online reading journals provided to you. This is a course that focuses on soft skills rather than technical skills. This course has given me new insights into intercultural issues and communication styles in professional and educational settings.
Under the heading Pre-semester in the Course Calendar you will find my Videogame Play/Fieldnote exercise. This assignment entails playing a game solo and taking notes, then watching someone online play the same game, taking notes as well. My job was to act as a researcher, taking notes and figuring out what I was noticing while I played and why it was significant, then watch another play the same game, and also figuring out what was significant. The final “bridge” was to put all that together in a analytical “case study” of the game.
Under the heading End of Semester in the Course Calendar you will find my groups Twine game, if you haven’t heard of it Twine is a tool for building text based games. Our job was to create a meaningful way of representing two assigned readings through a twine creation of our own. Check it out we had fun with this one!
ETEC 590 – Graduating Project
ETEC 590 is designed to facilitate a broad-based demonstration of your theoretical and applied knowledge and the attainment of your own personal goals acquired during your Master of Educational Technology program. You may choose to complete this course as both a reflective capstone experience and for the opportunity it provides to gain knowledge in planning and designing web-based portfolios.
I chose to complete this course as both a reflective capstone experience and for the opportunity it provided to gain knowledge in planning and designing web-based portfolios. In addition, this course also provided the opportunity to showcase my work and celebrate my accomplishments with my peers.